Tuesday, April 04, 2006

A huge pile of shoes was built in Trafalgar Square today to highlight the plight of millions of people affected by landmines throughout the world.

The Mass Of Shoes was created as part of Landmine Awareness Day, the first UN international day for mine awareness and assistance in mine action.

Celebrity supporters of the Mines Advisory Group, MAG, a non-governmental organisation that works for the clearance of mines, attended the central Londondisplay.

Actress Vanessa Redgrave, former journalist and independent MP Martin Bell and Seventies singer-songwriter Julie Felix were among those who stepped out today in support of the charity.

Each of the 2,000 shoes that made up the pile of footwear represented a life lost to landmines so far this year.

An estimated 15,000-20,000 people - one every 20 minutes - are killed orinjured each year by mines and other munitions.

Some of the worst-affected areas are former war-torn countries of Africa, including Angola, Sudan, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cambodia.

MAG works in 14 countries to clear mines and educate people about them and has helped halve victim rates in many places.

Mr Bell, who during his time as a journalist covered conflicts across the world, said the main problem faced by the organisation was financial as it costs an estimated #2 to lay a mine and #200 to clear it.

"Landmines have the effect of completely destroying civilian lives as no-one can move about," he said.

"Agriculture ceases because landmines tend to be sown in arable areas.

"The problem is they are so cheap to lay and so expensive to move, and in my experience the militia who plant them leave no maps," he said.

Mr Bell said the most vulnerable groups were farmers and children.

"It means whole communities cannot move about.

"What MAG does is go out to these countries and train local people to lift the mines, but it all costs money.

"I would like to think that, with the work of organisations like MAG, more landmines are now being cleared than are being sown."

In a poignant display of the damage landmines can cause, BBC journalist Stuart Hughes, who lost a leg after stepping on a landmine while covering the war in Iraq, detached his artificial limb and posed for photographers in front of the mound of shoes.

He said: "I think a lot of people think the landmine problem has gone away, but seeing this physical symbol of the lives lost this year brings it home.

"Most landmine survivors are not as lucky as me and do not have access to the medical care I received."

MAG executive director Lou McGrath said: "In one year alone we cleared well over a million dangerous items in Iraq due to the sort of government support the UN is calling for.

"However we know that clearing landmines plus the bombs, abandoned small arms or large missiles, and even providing education, training and employment as we do in our programmes is not enough, especially for the poorest communities we work in.

"Mine action has to be part of a country's wider development needs and it has to benefit the way communities live, work and develop in order that they can truly recover from conflict.

"Government and public support isn't limitless so we're grateful the UN has launched such an important day to remind the world we need to destroy these weapons that devastate so many innocent lives."